


Prompt - Maz, close friends

by Munnin



Series: The Star Wars Write Stuff challenge. [6]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 00:50:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9692336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: Maz muses on her friendship.





	

Maz’s kingdom (she refused to call it an empire for obvious reasons) was predicated on favours. That’s how she controlled the flow of everything in and out of her kingdom. It usually started small – an engine part, refuelling when you were low on credits, somewhere to lay low. And then as you got more and more comfortable in her company, she would remind you of just how many favours you owed. Just how down you were when she offered you a hand up. And you did what she asked, not out of fear, but out of guilt and the gnawing sensation that you didn’t, Maz wouldn’t be there when you needed her most. And neither would anyone else who owed Maz favours. 

At least that’s how it was with most people. It was certainly how it was with Han Solo, a man notorious for not paying back his debts. For lying, tricking, and talking his way out of anything and everything he could. 

Maz knew him, most of his life. She was a thousand years old after all. She knew him before the rebellion and after; before Ben and after. 

And she’d known Chewbacca that long too. 

Unlike the young, brash, and frankly pig-headed Moof-milker Solo, Chewbacca had always been honest and kind. He played up the big, tough Wookiee act when they needed it, but it was it was usual just that – an act. 

Maz had seen that clear enough in those soft brown eyes. 

What Maz liked to think of as their courtship had started early. Solo was out of fuel and out of luck. Again. He’d won a ship off some other pirate, a Corellian YT-1300f light freighter. It was a good, solid ship, the sort that could last several short human lifetimes if looked after properly but Solo had won the ship in as-is condition. Which was to say, barely limping. 

Maz had agreed to let him set down in her hanger and use her workshop – every tool and part itemised of course. She kept a close eye on the unlikely pair – the young smuggler and the displaced Wookiee. It wasn’t hard to guess there was a life debt between them. You didn’t buy that sort of closeness with anything short of blood. 

But where Solo weaselled and conjured, Chewbacca asked. Politely, and without pretexted. And because he asked, Maz was much more likely to grant his requests. 

And then there were the little favours. Not favours in the way she usually thought of the term, but kindnesses. Chewbacca saw that Maz had a damaged bow-caster in her collection which he offered to repair. Not for profit, but because it was damaged and he had the know-how to fix it. 

Next time they dropped in, Maz made a point of having some Kashyyyk delicacies stashed behind the bar. 

And so on and so forth. 

It was Solo who first made the joke about them dating and Maz had been happy to roll with it. In fact, she made a bigger joke of it than Solo did. 

Mostly because it made Solo uncomfortable. He could dish it out but couldn’t take it! Perhaps it cut too close to the bone. 

But the truth was, Maz had few true friends. Friends she did things for because she wanted to rather than for profit or because it was the will of the Force. But Chewbacca was someone she genuinely counted as a friend. 

And sitting on the edge of the cliff, looking out over the lake, tucked close to Chewie’s side with her fingers carding softly through his fur, she knew he felt the same.


End file.
